Nehemiah Part XXV - Concern for the House of God (13:4-14)

Today we witness Nehemiah dealing with the people's unfaithfulness toward the Temple. Their sin takes two forms. The first is internal corruption – the service of the Temple itself is being twisted and distorted from its proper function to the personal use of an unbeliever. The second is a failure to pay the tithe – the nobles and people were likely so jaded by this internal corruption that they were no longer bringing the tithes for the support of the Temple system, including the support of the Levites. By observing the way that Nehemiah deals with these two problems we learn some important lessons about our own calling to care for the House of God.

Stuart Bryan is the pastor of Trinity Church. He and his wife, Paige, have seven children, four homegrown, two adopted from the lovely land of Guatemala, and one adopted from Ukraine. Stuart earned his B.A. in Religion from Whitworth College and his M.A. in Theological and Historical Studies from Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando, Florida.